[lit-ideas] Re: Patrick in Ireland
- From: "Veronica Caley" <molleo1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 21:27:05 -0400
Lawrence,
Thank you for your fine explanation. It is greatly appreciated. Especially
since when I was studying Western Civilization it was said that a lot of the
early priests, not the first century CE but after that, were illiterate and
couldn't read or write any language.
Veronica Caley
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011 11:31 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Patrick in Ireland
Veronica,
In order to preach or evangelize as Patrick did, one needed to know Latin.
The Evangelist would need to know the native language in order to preach, but
he would have needed to know Latin in order to study the Scriptures which were
readily only in that language.
On page 87-88 of The Barbarian Conversion from Paganism to Christianity,
Fletcher writes, "Christian churches imply Christian texts. Patrick was soaked
in the Bible, as may be readily seen from passages in his Confessio . . . and
he would have seen to it that the priests he ordained were too. Familiarity
with the Bible and the Christian liturgy presupposed two things: learning Latin
and acquiring the technology of writing. Ancient Ireland had a rich oral
repertoire of poetry and narrative but early Christian leaders there seem to
have been reluctant to translate Christian texts into the vernacular and write
them down; possibly the Irish vernacular was held to be tainted by association
with paganism. (It should be said that these inhibitions were overcome at a
later stage and that in the course of time Ireland developed a rich Christian
literature in Old Irish.) Whatever the reason, early Irish converts, unlike
Ulfila's Goths, were not presented with a vernacular Bible. So Patrick's
clerical disciples had to learn Latin. Moreover, they had to learn Latin as a
foreign language. The Provençal audiences of Caesarius, the flock of Bishop
Martin in Touraine, even the rustics of Galicia, all spoke Latin of a sort.
The Irish did not. Learning Latin, for them, meant schools and grammar and a
lot of hard work. It was the need to acquire facility in Latin - in an
environment which lacked the educational system which was such a central
feature of later-antique literary culture in the Roman Empire - which made the
pursuit of learning an essential feature of Irish Christian communities in the
early Middle Ages. Much was to follow from this. Early results were
impressive: the first Irishman who has left us a substantial body of Latin
writings was St Columbanus. He was born in about 545 and devoted his youth to
'liberal and grammatical studies', in the words of his earliest biographer:
this would have been in the 550s and early 560s. The Latin of Columbanus was
confident, supple and elegant, altogether different from the raw uncouth Latin
of Patrick. It is plain that by the middle of the sixth century it was
possible in Ireland to acquire a really good Latin education."
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Veronica Caley
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011 7:16 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Patrick in Ireland
While looking at the girls in the fog, one of your other blogs caught my eye.
It was the one re Patrick in England and Ireland. You mention that Patrick
had difficulty with Latin. Why would he need Latin when people in all of
England and Ireland spoke languages other than Latin?
Veronica Caley
Milford, MI
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: Lit-Ideas
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 9:29 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Fog on the Mountain, 6-10-11
http://www.lawrencehelm.com/2011/06/fog-on-mountain-6-10-11.html
Lawrence
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